


of things that don't exist (but actually do)

by weirdlywisely



Series: what to do when you accidentally summon a demon [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Ace doesn't believe in magic, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Demon Sabo, Demon Summoning, Gen, Kotatsu is his cat, this is more of an introduction than anything, until it hits him in the face
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-18 20:09:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14220834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weirdlywisely/pseuds/weirdlywisely
Summary: It wasn’t supposed to work. It wasn’t supposed to be real. He was supposed to prove that all ofthisdidn’t exist. It couldn’t be real.Ace took one look at his living room and he knew. He had fucked up.Extremely so.





	of things that don't exist (but actually do)

**Author's Note:**

> So! I've wanted to write a modern magic AU for a while! so here it is!! 
> 
> and it's a series bc i ramble a lot and this was already too long! and it is just the start sooooo 
> 
> also basically wrote it to deal with the stress of life and the upcoming future bc idk summoning demons is my go-to answer to anything
> 
> as always, i'm sorry if there are errors in my english there i tried my best to correct it all but well

It wasn’t supposed to work. It wasn’t supposed to be real. He was supposed to prove that all of _this_ didn’t exist. It couldn’t be real.

 

Ace took one look at his living room and he knew. He had fucked up. _Extremely so_.

 

* * *

 

It had all started a few weeks ago, when Ace had found this really old and strange book, in the back of the library. He had been procrastinating an essay by just wandering around the shelves of the campus library. They had pretty cool books, and he could at least learn a lot about a lot of different topics. Instead of doing his essay that would take four hours at most to outline completely, and in details. He never said he was a logical person. Plus the topic was boring.

 

So, here he was. In the back of the library, where almost no one went. The shelves were completely deserted here. No one ventured that far back. At least, no one did right now. He was all alone there. His bag left behind with all his papers spread on the table, ignored, back in the part of the library full of tables.

 

But, as he was wandering aimlessly - except to run away from university work - he found a small staircase, going down, in a part of the library he never saw. He shrugged and decided to go down. It might be another wing of the archives, and well, he could use the help of old books, original sources, or whatever he might find there. Not like it could be something too dangerous, it was a campus library after all.

 

He indeed found himself in an archives room. However, it seemed like this room was pretty old and not very well lighted. Looking around, seeing all those shelves full of old-looking books, he could see that not a lot of people went down there. Probably someone to clean a bit every now and then, as the room was pretty clean. Nevertheless, he could feel that the room wasn’t dry enough for the books. Some would probably be in a bad shape if they were kept there for too long. He made a mental note to inform the front desk of the library about that.

 

Ace looked towards the stairs, hesitating between exploring a little bit more or going back to his studies. A quick glance at his phone showed him that he had time. So he decided to see what kind of books were hidden down there.

 

He looked over the different titles, being surprised at the fact that none of them seemed to be in English. He recognized Latin and Greek for previous classes. Those he could be sure the language. But all others, he could only make guess as to which language it was. It seemed to be very varied. He paused, thinking he perhaps stumbled upon old classics in their original language. Which would make sense as to why all books looked so old. And why they were in so many different languages.

 

However, that didn’t explain why they were kept so far away from the main rooms of the library. He was sure all the Classic Studies majors would love to study those texts. 

 

As he walked, he passed his hand over the cover of the books, fingers tracing slightly the details of each and every book.

 

Suddenly, a loud sound made him jump back, stumbling into the shelf that was standing behind him. The sudden move made the shelf wobble, so he tried to keep it steady, ignoring his wildly beating heart. Once he was sure nothing would fall he turned towards the origin of the noise.

 

Ace went around the shelf in front of him, looking around, trying to locate the origin of this loud noise. But nothing. He couldn’t see anyone, or anything that could have made that sound around.

 

He climbed up the stairs to see if it had been the door violently getting shut. But no, it was still open, as he had left it.

 

Then, as he went down the stairs, confused, he saw it.

 

There, on the ground, laid a big book. He guessed it must have fallen down when he shook the shelves. Even though this one seemed to be on one of the shelf he didn’t shake. But well, it couldn’t have fallen on its own.

 

He bent down to pick it up. Kind of curious as to see what kind of book it was. Even if he probably couldn’t read it.

 

It was a massive book. A dark brown leather cover, with a metal clasp, still in a pretty good condition as it seemed pretty old, with some finely done ornaments. It really seemed like it was an old codex, he could see the cover had been sewn to the pages, which had been stitched together, carefully.

 

Curious about this book, he decided to bring it home, to examine it more attentively. He turned the book over, trying to see if there was something, a label, on the book marking it unborrowable or something. He didn’t notice anything on the cover, not even a bar code. Ace frowned when he noticed that, but he supposed the library didn’t want to damage such old books. At least they really did look old.

 

He climbed back up the stairs, turning off the light in the room and closing the door behind him as he went back to pick up his stuff, the heavy book in his arms.

 

He quickly gathered all his papers in his bag, and the few books he had decided to borrow for his essay, which he carried to the front desk. Lastly, he put the old book on the checkout counter, which the student charged of checking out the books glanced slightly before frowning.

 

“This is not ours.”

 

Ace raised an eyebrow at that. “What do you mean ? I found it in the back of the library ?”

 

“Not. Ours.” The student said, stressing each word.

 

A bit surprised at the vehemence in their words, Ace nodded, taking back the book and putting it in his bag with the other books. He gave them his student card so they could put those on it before leaving. He just supposed he would give it back with all the other books at a later date.

 

* * *

 

 

Ace had went home, put down all the books, and decided to ignore his essay a bit more. After a few days, he had had to focus completely on the work he had to do for university, pushing the strange old book to the back of his mind, so much that he almost completely forgot it.

 

He didn’t forget it altogether because, for some reason, this book had found its way onto his coffee table and didn’t seem to move from it. Even if he couldn’t remember placing it there, it still seemed to be there. Bah, he had other things to think about than where a book was. It wasn’t like the book was alive anyway.

 

He was just glad that his cat, Kotatsu, didn’t try to sink his claws in the old leather. Hopefully, he would stay away from it, and not make him go crazy, trying to reimburse the library. He knew they said it wasn’t theirs, but he would still rather avoid any legal problems. He was only a broke student. He didn’t need to pay more for what could be a rare copy of an ancient text. He didn’t know anything about it after all, better be safe than sorry.

 

He had been a bit wary at first, as his cat seemed to managed to put his claws on everything, and he meant _everything_ , that was even slightly damageable. As such, Ace had put the book on one of the higher library shelves, hoping it would escape his hurricane of a cat. But for some reason, it seemed he had put the book back down on the coffee table. But well, as long as it was still intact, he wasn’t going to complain. Not too much, at least.

 

Nevertheless, overall, he hadn’t thought much about this codex.

 

That was until one rainy evening.

 

He didn’t have anything to do that evening. It was pouring heavily outside. The sound of the rain hitting the pavement almost lulled him to sleep. If only it wasn’t too early and would disturb his schedule vastly, he would have given in and fallen asleep.

 

So, instead, he went to the living room. A fluffy blanket wrapped around his shoulders, Kotatsu napping on the couch. He went to make himself a cup of decaf coffee, to drink something warm but nothing that would stop him from sleeping. He turned on one of the smaller lamps, so as not to have too much light. Then, he sat next to his cat, careful as to not disturb his sleep too much. Kotatsu didn’t react, he simply rolled over to stick himself to Ace. This made him chuckle.

 

He put the cup down on the coffee table, making himself comfortable, before taking the ancient book on his laps, and taking the cup again, taking a sip of the scalding hot beverage.

 

He let his fingers trace lightly the delicate letterings and ornaments of the cover.

 

Then, slowly, he opened the book, careful as to not damage it when he turned the pages. They were made of old paper, which seemed, under his fingers, to be quite sturdy, having withheld the passage of time quite well.

 

He took another sip of his coffee, stroking Kotatsu’s fur softly, as he tried to read the words written in the book. At least, he could decipher the words, more or less, as it was written in the Roman alphabet. Or at least, it looked closely like the Roman alphabet. He couldn’t actually understand what was written, but he could tell it was beautifully done. The letters were all well traced, even an untrained eye could see it. And the illuminations on the dropped caps were just stunning in their bright colors, the ink seeming to not have lost its color.

 

Along the pages, he could see some really beautiful and colorful symbols, silvers of gold tinting the pages and enhancing the colors. Small darker spots could be seen on some pages, tainting the paper. He supposed those were the most looked over pages, as the symbols were colorful, and the writing more abundant on those pages than on others.

 

He finished his coffee, putting his mug back on the table, so he could trace the letters without having to stop petting his cat.

 

This particular page had caught his eye. From what he could understand, it was probably some sort of ritual, as there were some drawings of objects and quantities, or he supposed those were quantities, in roman numbers.

 

Looking over it, he wondered what it could do. He was a bit curious about that. It kinda looked like the whole “magic” stuff his little brother was into. A snort escaped him. _Right_. As if that was real. There was no way. This was just probably some dumb old shit. Probably some sort of an old medicine for, he didn’t know, backaches or something similar. Whatever plagued the people in the past.

 

Shaking his head, Ace closed the book and put it back on the coffee table next to the cup. He then rearranged the blanket around his shoulders to make sure it wouldn’t fall down as he walked towards his room, scooping Kotatsu up as he went, the cat only protesting slightly before making himself at ease when put down on the bed. This made Ace chuckle slightly before he went to go to sleep himself. Heavy tiredness hitting him hard.

 

He woke up at one point, in the middle of the night. A feeling of dread settling in his guts. He sat up suddenly, a feeling of awe gripped his insides. His abrupt movements disturbed the sleeping cat who sent him a glare before making himself comfortable again at the foot of the bed. Ace made a small noise of apology, before he slowly got out of the bed to investigate what was happening.

 

Slowly, he made his way towards the main part of his apartment, making sure he wasn’t making too much noise as he arrived in the living room. He was ready to see an intruder and to have to fight them off.

 

He turned on the lights and stepped in the room.

 

Nothing.

 

However, the sense of dread didn’t leave. His instincts were screaming at him to get out. To run away. And fast. That something bad was there. That something bad was going on.

 

He stepped more into his living room, to see if there was any sign of entry. But no, the lock on his door was still in place, and the window was still closed, locked and the shutters were still locked.

 

There were no signs of effraction. And no reason for his instincts to have woken him up and screamed at him like that.

 

Frowning, he went back to his room to sleep for a few more hours. Ignoring the warning bells echoing at the back of his mind.

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning, he was woken up by someone barging into his apartment, his room, and jumping on him, effectively waking up him.

 

Still half asleep, he pushed away the weight that had settled on his back, groaning at the brutal awakening. He buried his face in his pillow, unwilling to actually get up.

 

“Ace ! C’mon wake up ! I’m bored!”

 

Ace groaned again to express his discontentment at the situation. “Stop it Lu’,” he mumbled in the pillow when the other didn’t stop trying to get him up.

 

“Come ooooon !” Luffy insisted.

 

With much reluctance, he finally raised his head up, raising himself to rest on his elbows, blinking a few times as Luffy hurried to open the curtains to let in the light, blinding him with the sudden brightness. He let himself fall back onto the bed just as the brightness engulfed the room.

 

After a few moments, and the urging of Luffy, Ace got up. Very reluctantly. He dragged himself to the open-plan kitchen to make himself a coffee. He needed the boost if he didn’t want to just fall down right now, or be a literal zombie for the next two hours. Plus he couldn’t keep up with Luffy this early in the morning, he didn’t have the energy. He wasn’t even sure he was really awake right now.

 

He took his cup and went to sit on the couch, next to Luffy who had already made himself home.

 

“I didn’t give you a key so you could just barge in whenever,” Ace informed him, taking a sip, knowing fully well that was what he had signed for when he gave him the key.

 

“Whatever you say,” Luffy smiled, sitting cross-legged on the couch.

 

“So, why are you there ?”

 

“Was bored,” Luffy shrugged, looking around the room.

 

His eyes were drawn to the book sitting open on the coffee table. He frowned a bit, trying to recognize the book before an even wider grin lit up his face.

 

“Soooo, you finally realized magic was real !” He exclaimed excitedly.

 

“Nah, I just found this book in the back of the library and well, it seemed cool,” he shrugged.

 

“You don’t take a summoning book if you don’t want to learn about it,” Luffy told him, looking at his brother like he was stupid.

 

Ace elbowed him for the look he had sent him. “Summoning, right,” he said, sarcasm heavy in his tone.

 

“Yep,” Luffy nodded excitedly. “It seems you just need the candles and to draw the sigil, probably a bit of blood too. Seems pretty easy,” he said looking more at the book, and the open page.

 

“Lu’, you can’t believe this shit right ? This is probably just some old religious shit.”

 

“It’s very real!” Luffy exclaimed, offended at the thought. “I never tried summoning something, but it’s real!”

 

Ace snorted, rolling his eyes. As if. There was no way this was real. He leaned over to close the book. It was easier to ignore then.

 

“Hey, what about a bet ?” He smirked, sure of himself.

 

Luffy tilted his head to the side, curious about it. “Sure,” he said before even knowing what it was about.

 

“Lu’, stop agreeing before you know what’s going on,” he sighed exasperatedly.

 

“But I’m gonna win so who cares ?”

 

“Anyway,” he rubbed his eyes, trying to keep himself from strangling his little brother, “how about I bet you I can prove you that all of this magic stuff,” he gestured vaguely, “doesn’t exist ?”

 

Luffy furrowed his eyebrows. “But, it all exists.”

 

“So, you won’t have any problems betting all your meat for two days, right ?”

 

The younger brother crossed his arms, not really willing to bet his food, but then again he was sure to win.

 

So, he nodded, extending his end to make the bet official. “But when you lose you’ll have to buy me meat for two days!”

 

Ace nodded, shaking his brother’s hand, sure to win easily.

 

“I’ll do it tomorrow then !”

 

Luffy nodded, satisfied with that answer. And excited about the prospect of having more meat soon.

  


* * *

 

 

And this was when it all went to shit if you had to ask him. That was wrong because it had all been a bad idea since he had found that book but it was at that exact precise moment that he had really fucked up.

 

He had gone home after his classes, as always. He just threw all his belongings (jacket, bag, keys) in his room and went to crash on the couch. He turned his head to the open book on his coffee table, the unsettling feeling coming back with a force.

 

But he had a bet going on. And he wouldn't lose to his little brother. That would be humiliating. And he wouldn’t call it off, that would be worse.

 

He decided he would do the whole stuff after eating dinner. Probably better to eat something before he had to go through the hassle of getting everything in place. And all that just to prove wrong his brother. If he didn’t have the reward of meat for the next two days he wouldn’t do it. Not at all. It was way too bothersome. Like the whole buying black candles and drawing the colorful symbol and giving blood and shit, it was pretty bothersome and it took quite some time. But, because he was, by some miracle, done with his assignments, he could try that.

 

He couldn’t even believe that he was doing something that dumb. Especially since he finally had free time, and he could have used the time to rest.

 

But no. Here he was, sitting cross-legged on the floor of his living room. He had placed a large sheet of paper in front of him, along with some pens of different colors.

 

With a sigh, Ace turned towards the book on the coffee table, ready to choose a symbol to draw. He looked at the open book, not remembering having opened it, but he supposed he had just let it open all day. He mentally berated himself as such an old book shouldn’t be exposed to light for so long. He started to turn the pages slowly, trying to find one design he found pretty enough to draw, or cool enough. He wasn’t going to waste time on something he couldn’t at least use as decoration or something.

 

As he brushed through the pages, he heard his phone buzz on the table. He grabbed it and answered the call, standing up as he did.

 

“What do you want Lu’ ?”

 

He started pacing around the room while talking to his brother.

 

“Yeah, I was actually starting when you called.” He nodded a few times, humming. “No, I won’t give you meat already.” … “I will prove you it won’t work.” … “Goodbye.” And with that he ended the call, ignoring the laughter that rang in his ears.

 

He threw his phone on the couch and sat back down on the ground in front of the book.

 

Ace frowned when he looked down on the book. He was sure he had seen that page already. More than once. He was sure he was at one of the later page of the book. He hadn’t brushed it to make it go back there. Nor was there any breeze in his apartment. So that didn’t make any sense that he would find himself faced with the same page, over and over again. Especially since it seemed like it was always, _always_ , this page that came back. All the time.

 

He shrugged. That was probably a sign. Probably. If he was going to try something that stupid, he should at least follow the whole dumb _fate_ thing.

 

So, he sat down, ready to draw this one symbol.

 

After way more time than he cared to admit he took to draw it, and he didn’t even draw the symbol that big, he was finally ready to start the whole thing.

 

He stretched a bit, his back aching after sitting for so long.

 

He put the drawing down, then placed the candles around it before he went to search for matches so he could light them up. He lit them all before standing up and throwing away the now extinguished match. He came back with one of his dagger, one he knew was sharp.

 

He stood in front of the circle-thing and looked between the dagger and his hand, trying to think of where it was best to cut to draw blood. He grumbled, he really did a lot for such a stupid thing. But well, if he had to prove something, might as well go all the way. He stood for a bit, trying to think on which finger a cut would be the least annoying. He settled on his ring-finger, this one was pretty much not used, so it would be fine.

 

With a steady hand, he sliced his skin quickly, enough to draw blood, but a not too big cut that it would be too bothersome. Then, he waited for a bit of blood to drop on the paper, which took longer than he had planned. And longer than in the movies, but then again those idiots sliced their palms so they weren't very smart.

 

Then, he waited.

 

And waited.

 

And waited.

 

After almost twenty minutes of standing and watching the drawing and the candles, Ace just sighed.

 

“I knew it. It’s all dumb and fake. I just wasted my evening.”

 

He turned around to grab the match and dagger he threw on the couch, to put them away, when the feeling of dread came back, even stronger than before.

 

He turned back as fast as he could to see the flames of the candles burn brighter and fiercer than they should, than they could. He could see them dance, as if there was some sort of breeze making them move. He could see the paper on the floor move as well. It didn’t make any sense.

 

He took a few steps back. He felt his guts clenching in apprehension. What was happening ?

 

He heard the sound of fire crackling. He could recognize the smell of burning logs. That didn’t make any sense. He was inside of an apartment, and nothing was burning. He could hear the tapping of claws, if he had to guess, against wood, or something. But Kotatsu wasn’t there.

 

He turned around to try and see where his cat was, and he noticed him near the door leading to his room, looking warily at the circle.

 

Worried, he looked back to the circle, to see it brightly lit. With flames engulfing the paper. Flames going up to the ceiling. Momentarily, he hoped that they wouldn’t leave a mark as he didn’t want to lose his deposit for that.

 

A sudden loud noise startled him. He lost his balance, catching himself on the counter of his kitchen before his legs gave out completely.

 

He turned towards what was happening. The fire’s intensity had decreased drastically. He blinked a bit. No smoke. Only small flames. He raised his eyes to the ceiling. No traces of the big flames that were there previously.

 

And, more importantly, in the middle of the candles, the sheet of paper had burned down completely.

 

Instead, there stood someone.

 

The person had blond wavy hair, and they were tall. And they had horns. And sort of wings in their back. And there was something shimmering on their face -- scales ? to Ace it seemed those were scales over his left eye, and a bit down his neck it seemed.

 

Ace walked backwards towards his kitchen, where he would have something standing between him and… _that_. Fear was grasping at his throat and he could feel himself tremble. He ducked behind his counter, hoping that they didn’t see him.

 

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. It couldn’t be real. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t have worked. It wasn’t supposed to work. It wasn’t supposed to be real. He was supposed to prove that all of _this_ didn’t exist. It couldn’t be real.

 

Ace took one look at his living room and he knew. He had fucked up. _Extremely so_.

 

“So, you’re the human who summoned me ?” the person -- demon if Ace had to guess -- asked, smirking at him like they already knew the answer.

 

Ace couldn’t find his voice. He hadn’t even noticed the demon had seen him. And now he felt paralyzed by those piercing red eyes. He felt weak and like he lost control. That would teach him to make fun of something Luffy obviously believed in. Especially since something related to magic, or whatever, was standing right in front of him.

 

“I’m Sabo, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” the demon -- Sabo -- said with a grin showing sharp teeth.

 

Ace took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

 

He really had fucked up.

**Author's Note:**

> anyway i have quite a few ideas for this AU and well we'll see when i'll write it bc im a dumbass with poor time management who shouldn't start writing more than one thing at a time 
> 
> idk i hope you liked it ???
> 
> here is my [tumblr](http://weirdlywisely.tumblr.com)


End file.
